The economic growth of a country depends more and more on its capacity to innovate. Japan, South Korea and the P. R. of China acquire an increasing importance in the global location competition besides some smaller Asian threshold economies. Other countries such as India make also an effort to bring in their great potential of human capital as a location factor on a global level. In these countries major reforms of public institutions are made to increase the efficiency of national innovation policies in particular with regard towards the United States and Western Europe. We can observe that in Japan the government increases the steering potential on the innovation system via a Council for Science and Technology which is presided by the Prime Minister. In South Korea the President chairs the National Science and Technology Council which aims in particular for a better international linking of the Korean innovation system. The P.R. of China has started to develop an independent national strategy for the Hightech area only with a significant time lag. Currently the central government focuses its activities on the development of national research institutes and the remigration of Chinese scientists from abroad, particularly the U.S.